This invention relates to an arc welding method in which a MIG-arc is maintained in an ionized gas flow which is conveyed through a nozzle in the direction of a workpiece, a consumable electrode serving as one of the electrodes of the MIG-arc.
Such a method is known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,612,807. In this known method the MIG-arc is maintained between the consumable electrode and a workpiece; the quantity of thermal energy supplied to the workpiece is coupled to the quantity of thermal energy required for melting the consumable electrode, the drawbacks of which being a large thermally influenced zone in the workpiece when high current strengths are used by the consumable electrode.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method which does not exhibit said drawbacks, and in which the workpiece is influenced thermally only to a small extent by the current through the consumable electrode.